


Sweetener

by TheQueensGuard



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Game of Thrones AU, Implied Jonerys, One Shot, Protective!Grey Worm, Rhaegal is alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2020-04-23 14:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19153324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueensGuard/pseuds/TheQueensGuard
Summary: Now that Missandei is gone, Grey Worm has another lady in his life that he has vowed to protect. A one shot about Grey Worm's friendship with the next queen of the Seven Kingdoms.





	Sweetener

 

_Inspired by[this](https://twitter.com/stormbornbxxtch/status/1126805723608965120?s=20) tweet _

 

She knew she was being watched. He could tell by the way her movements slowed and became more deliberate. He would be proud of her ability to sneak out of the castle and back in if he had not been searching for her for over an hour.

“Missandei.” Grey Worm called, watching her head swivel in his direction.

She gave him a sly smile over her shoulder and finished blocking the pathway that she emerged from.

“I have been looking for you.” He started in Valyrian and then switched to the Common Tongue. “The Queen requests your presence.”

She came to him without hesitation and slipped her hand into his, looking up at him with big, bright eyes.

“Has she been looking for me long?” She asked in Valyrian. “I didn’t mean to be gone for so long.”

“Anytime she needs to ask for you, it’s been too long.” He gave her a sideways glance. “You know that already.”

“Is she upset with me?”

“Did you leave to upset her?”

Missandei shook her head, making her dark curls bounce against her shoulders.

“I had a feeling that something was happening and I didn’t want to bother anyone with something so unimportant.”

Grey Worm kept his head forward and his face blank like he was trained to do. It was the one thing he did best. However, since the first time that he laid eyes on her, he also worried in a way that settled into his bones with a familiarity that made him anxious. With this small girl was tucked into his side, looking at him with eyes full of love and trust, he could not help but worry.

“You can always tell me. I can take you wherever you want to go.”

“You were working.” She stated simply, as if that should make him feel better.

He said nothing, thinking of every time they’d had similar conversations. Thinking about how she might not return to him the next time she snuck off. Still, he said nothing and walked her to the throne room like he always did after such occasions. She would drop his hand and then they would enter side by side. If she were anyone else, he would position himself in front of the throne to protect his queen. Instead, he came to a stop behind her, flanking her right side.

Daenerys found it sweet that he stood behind Missandei when she was called before the throne. Once when he was watching her to make sure she was eating enough, Daenerys grinned at him and said _I know that you love her more than love anything else in the world. You're certainly the most protective. I don't begrudge you that. In fact, I sleep better at night knowing that you'll always protect her first._

Every time he stood behind Missandei in the throne room, he wondered how much she really meant what she had whispered to him that night. The first time it happened, he pulled Daenerys aside, apologizing to her with a face drowned in shame. He did not know exactly what he was apologizing for but he knew that it was necessary.

Was he apologizing for essentially taking a position that suggested he would defend another before his sworn queen?

Was he apologizing because he did not regret it?

Was he apologizing because he would definitely do it again?

Daenerys gave him one sharp nod.

“Good.”

Then she left him standing there as if the conversation never happened.

“Missandei.”

“Your Grace.” She bowed her head in respect and came to a stop before the throne.

Grey Worm bowed his head as well. He always needed a moment to compose himself when he saw her standing there. The intimidating hunk of steel sat at the top of a few large stairs, dwarfing anyone that came before it. Some of those that stood in the shadow of the throne, left the room marked for death. Although he knew he had nothing to fear, seeing Missandei bathed in the shadow of the Iron Throne was disconcerting.

“I’ve been looking for you, Missandei.” Daenerys raised her eyebrows in question but Missandei knew better than to answer. “In fact, almost everyone in this room has been searching the Keep top to bottom looking for you.”

Missandei kept her eyes on the base of the throne as she answered.

“My apologies, Your Grace.”

“Do you have any idea of how my day is disrupted when you pull stunts like this?”

“Yes. Gods forbid I’m out of your sight for longer than a minute.”

Grey Worm’s spine stiffened as his queen stood.

“Leave us.” Daenerys requested, making her way down the steps and coming to a stop in front of Missandei.

The room cleared quickly with Grey Worm bringing up the rear and standing guard inside of the closed doors. He watched intently as Daenerys came so close to Missandei that he was sure they could feel each other’s breath. He knew that she wouldn’t strike her but he was unsure of what punishment she might come up with in the moment. It was only recently that Missandei traded in her obedient upbringing for insolence and Grey Worm worried about how Daenerys would react when she was pushed too far.

“Missandei,” Daenerys breathed, lifting Missandei’s chin to ensure eye contact. “Why do we have rules?”

Missandei was silent, breathing heavily through her nose.

“I asked you a question. I expect an answer.”

Missandei wanted to roll her eyes but she kept her composure and answered silently.

“To keep us safe.”

Daenerys nodded slowly and used her thumb to brush Missandei’s cheek.

“And why do I have dozens of soldiers inside the halls of our home?”

Missandei felt her cheeks grow hot at the soft voice that Daenerys used and closed her eyes as she answered.

“To keep me safe.”

“To keep _you_ safe.” Dany’s voice cracked as she spoke. “How can I keep you safe if you do everything in your power to fight against it?”

Missandei felt the anger and annoyance melt away as if she were physically deflating. She opened her eyes and staring into a reflection of herself. The eyes that brimmed with tears were the only eyes she ever saw that looked exactly like her own.

“I’m sorry, Mama. I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

Daenerys nodded and pulled her into a hug. She let out a slow breath, disturbing the hair at the top of Missandei’s head. She was tall for her age. A surprise to both of her parents. Daenerys could handle her new gangly legs and long arms. When her baby girl was safe in her womb, Dany often thought more about what her daughter would be like as an adult than what she would be like as a growing young girl. The height didn’t bother her in the least. What she hated was this new found fight for independence that skirted most rules and altogether broke many others.

In many ways, she was nothing like the woman that she was named for. She was impatient and rash. She possessed a sharp tongue like her namesake but lacked the wherewithal to keep her comments to herself when it was necessary. Still, Grey Worm and Daenerys agreed that she was appropriately named. She was quick with languages. She could pick up tone and intent and use it to piece together information. She was so logical that Daenerys often asked her opinion on small issues that she was dealing with. She was more like Missandei than Dany thought possible. And that, scared her more than anything in the world. The last time she’d lost sight of a Missandei, she returned home without her.

“I’m not angry.” Daenerys whispered to the girl cradled in her arms. “I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Missandei pulled back and nodded, taking her mother’s hands in her own.

“I just wanted to see Rhaegal. I had a dream…” Missandei was hesitant to continue. She knew that her mother believed in the power of dreams.

“About him changing?” Daenerys asked, a proud smile on her face.

“You had it, too?”

“No but your father did. He thinks that Rhaegal is trying to tell him something.”

“I think…” Missandei paused before continuing, unsure of what her father had shared. “I think that Rhaegal might be a girl.”

“There’s nothing we can do but wait to see. What did you think that you would accomplish by sneaking out to see him?” The reprimand was clear in Dany’s voice.

On this point, Grey Worm agreed wholeheartedly. He jumped in front of Missandei on multiple occasions and pulled her away on others when he thought Drogon or Rhaegal were being too rough. He would never fully trust them with anyone but Daenerys. He would certainly never fully trust them when they pushed Missandei around like a toy. Even if her gleeful laughter said that she loved it.

Missandei shrugged the way that her father did, her curls bouncing against her collarbone.

“I don’t know...I just wanted to see.”

  
Daenerys nodded and took a step back to meet Grey Worm’s eyes on the other side of the room.

“Torgo Nudho,” Daenerys called, switching to Valyrian with ease. “You are hereby relieved of duty as my primary guard. For the foreseeable future you will be shadowing my disobedient daughter. Everyday she will attend lessons until dinner. An idle mind is clearly one ripe for trouble.”

Daenerys ignored the small groan that Missandei let out.

“Start the day with formal Valyrian lessons. She’s been spoiled by your informal approach. Work on grammar. She isn’t nearly as fluent as she should be.”

This time Missandei did roll her eyes, knowing that she was nearly fluent in her mother’s first tongue. Grey Worm made sure of it by speaking to her in High Valyrian as much as he could.

“I’ll also arrange for the Maester to give her lessons before our midday meal. It seems like it’s more imperative than ever than she learn the history of her house and how dangerous dragons really are.”

“I _know_ that Rhaegal would never hurt me!” She interjected, already sensing that her mother wasn’t done constructing her new schedule.

“I know that you don’t schedule your training sessions. Now, they’ll happen everyday after midday and in the training yard. I’m sure others would be interested in seeing the Targaryen princess wielding a sword with the Master of War.” Daenerys continued without pause, adding as much as she could to Missandei’s day before dinner. “When you need to meet with the captains, take her with you and she can take minutes for official records.”

“We don’t keep official records of those meetings.” Missandei interrupted.

“We do now.” Daenerys answered with a raised brow before turning her attention back to Grey Worm. “That will be all for now. If you think of anything else, you can let me know.”

Grey Worm gave her a sharp nod in answer.

Daenerys turned on her heels, moving to make her way back to the throne.

“Mama...I apologized.” Missandei pleaded, hating the idea of having her day micromanaged.

Daenerys stopped and turned to meet her daughter’s eyes. Grey Worm could see that this maternal display was over and she was ready to resume her role as Daenerys I Targaryen, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. He just hoped that Missandei saw it as well.

“I heard what you said. I also see what you do. You’ll go to your lessons and you’ll be grateful to have them.” Missandei opened her mouth to speak but Dany cut her off before she could. “You’re dismissed. I want you at the dinner table before I can open my mouth to ask where you are. Understood?”

“Yes, Your Grace.” Missandei bowed her head and left the room with haste, Grey Worm following on her heels.

She slammed the door to her room open, letting it hit the wall behind it. Grey Worm entered behind her, closing it gently before taking a seat next her by the window.

“I feel like I’m locked in here.”

“You are.” Grey Worm nodded in agreeance. “But there are worse places to be chained, Missandei.”

“She’s overbearing and it’s like I have no freedom.”

She had the decency to look properly chastised before Grey Worm could open his mouth. She knew that the people around her had not been born into the luxury that they currently enjoyed. However, her father felt like the princess was too young to be burdened with their collective, tumultuous pasts. Grey Worm, on the other hand, disagreed wholeheartedly and found her entitlement frustrating.

“I’m sorry for that.” She whispered, scooting closer to Grey Worm. “I know it was insensitive.”

Grey Worm gave her a small smile.

“It is a privilege that you may speak your mind when you wish.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” Missandei’s said with furrowed eyebrows.

Grey Worm repeated himself in the Common Tongue before continuing in Valyrian once again.

“You have barely seen your tenth name day. At this age, your mother was still starving in the streets as an orphan. She spent the first years of her life as a poor refugee that had to beg for food and shelter. I would guess that she has only ever had three or four people in her entire life that she can be her true self around. People that she can speak to unguarded.” Grey Worm paused and lowered his head with a bittersweet smirk. “Missandei, who came before you, was already a slave girl when she reached her tenth year. Her and her brothers were stolen from their homeland several years earlier. Queen Daenerys was her best friend. We were the only people in the world that made her feel safe. It is a privilege that you are allowed to speak when you want. Don’t abuse this privilege to assuage your anger.  Many fought and more died for your safety. You must learn to hold your tongue when it is necessary.”

Missandei gave him a quick small nod.

“And you? I know that the Unsullied were bred to be slaves. I know that your questions were taken from you. Who do you feel safe with?”

Her question surprised him and the shock was clear in his eyes.

“I felt the safest with Missandei of Naath. I feel the safest with Queen Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen. I feel safe when Princess Missandei of House Targaryen is safe.” Grey Worm turned to her with a small smile. “These are the women that saved me.”

“I feel safe with you, too.” She said with a shy smile and then whispered to him like she was telling the biggest secret in the world. “You’re my best friend in the whole world.”

She gave him a big smile that made him chuckle. He loved watching her grow. He loved watching her personality change. He loved that her teeth were different sizes and that she had spaces where small teeth had been. The transition from child to young woman was startling but it gave him joy to see it. Missandei was, in many ways, one of the things he was the most proud of. Daenerys often joked that they were all raising her. That Missandei was the child of a community instead of her and Jon. He felt that so deeply within him that it was startling.

“I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings sometimes...and that I run away when I’m not supposed to...and that I get you in trouble with Mama.”

“You are in more trouble than I am.”

“That’s true.” Missandei quipped, hopping up from the window seat. “Still, I’m sorry just the same.”

“I accept your apology.” Grey Worm offered, unsure of where she was going.

“Good. I’ll try to be better but for now, I think we should go train in the courtyard and maybe enough people will feel bad that you could kill me. Then Mama will let us practice in private again.”

He couldn’t help but laugh loudly.

“When we first started, you begged to practice in the training yard.”

She was still a quiet young girl then and halfway to her seventh year when she saw her father with a sword for the first time. Grey Worm would never forget the look in her eyes as she watched him cut down young boys in the training yard. It was as if a window had been opened to a world she did not know existed. Later that day she was found trying to sneak both an arakh and a dragonglass sword from the armory. It was not much longer before she was sneaking to his quarters to beg for a lesson.

 _I want to be like Papa._ She’d said. Her competitive nature shining through. It was another year before she would leave their sessions without crying in pain. It was another two before she would leave without obtaining new bruises. That is when the begging started. _I want to be better than Papa._ She whined, pleading for a chance to practice with the boys. If she could beat them in a one-on-one, she was that much closer to being a fair match for the best swordsman in the Seven Kingdoms. She said repeatedly that she did not want to go up against her father until she was sure that she was a capable fighter. Grey Worm understood her ambition but was well aware that there was no boy in Westeros that would dare step up as her challenger.

“I’ve changed my mind.” Missandei crossed her arms in defiance. “I want to be the best before I go out there.”

“You are already better than any young man training in the yard.” He ensured, knowing that it was true. “You can fight with swords, spears, and arakhs. These boys learn only the art of swinging a sword.”

“And Papa?”

He paused for a moment, tilting his head at her.

“I have never seen him with an arakh.”

Although she smiled, she still did not look convinced.

“Missandei, you have nothing to worry about. I would not lie to you about your abilities.”

“If I’m so good, then why do we still train?”

“You are good. You are not great.” He put his hand on his shoulder to soften the blow of his blunt statement. “I will push you until you can beat me with your eyes closed. I will not stop a moment before.”

She seemed satisfied with his answer and began to pack up her spear and sword, name day gifts from Grey Worm and her father respectively. She walked down to the training yard and even smiled at her father as she passed him to enter the enclosure. She picked an empty spot at the edge of the fence and waited for Grey Worm to signal the beginning of their warm up.

They started slowly with Grey Worm practicing defensive strategies, forcing Missandei into an offensive position. Then they switched. Missandei kept her feet moving and gave him no room to strike her.  

Grey Worm saw the smile on her face as their steel swords clanged together. She was blocking every hit he tried to make, sweat pouring down her face.

“Harder!” She requested, shouting over nothing.

The air had gone quiet and everyone around them stopped to watch. They were expecting a show and they got one. He was not going easy on her by any means. It made him inexplicably happy to know that at just ten years of age, she could take on every man that stood in awe of her.

As he saw the small proud smirk appear on her face, he thought of all of the women in his life.

Daenerys Stormborn.

The woman that set him free. The woman that gave him purpose.

Missandei of Naath.

The woman that touched him so gently that he could weep at the love that poured from her fingers. The woman that gave him her love so freely that he dared to dream about a life that others would call impossible.

And then there was this little girl.

A fierce little warrior. He would fight the entire world for her.

Grey Worm wondered often if this overwhelming feeling was what it was like to be a father. He was captivated by her. There was a shift the very first moment that his queen rested her new baby in his arms. _We’ll call her Missandei._ Daenerys whispered to him. All five of her little fingers were wrapped around one of his and nothing else mattered but her. Sometimes it was too much to love her. It made him want to laugh. To scream. To sob. Any way to release the feelings that he drowned in. All of the love and the fear and the joy.

What would his life be like if he could never again see his little Missandei?

* * *

 _When life deals us cards_  
_Make everything taste like it is salt_  
_Then you come through like the sweetener you are_  
_To bring the bitter taste to a halt_

_Sweetener - Ariana Grande_

**Author's Note:**

> I don't have much to say except that I loved Grey Worm and Missandei and I really wanted them to sail off to their happily ever after. Daenerys should have had her miracle baby instead of being killed by the man she loved. We should not have had the ending that we ultimately got. It's really all bullshit. So, I'm just here writing fanfic and making jokes on Twitter to mask my pain.


End file.
